The 2012 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition winners

Deep Space category highly commended: NGC 6960 - The Witch's Broom by Robert Franke (USA). Part of the Veil Nebula, the ‘Witch’s Broom’ is the glowing debris from a supernova explosion – the violent death of a massive star. Although the supernova occurred several thousand years ago, the gaseous debris is still expanding outwards, producing this vast cloud-like structure. In this image narrowband filters have been used to greatly increase detail while giving a reasonable representation of the nebula's colour.Picture: Robert Franke